A group of employees began 2023 without work after the abrupt closure of the Burger King restaurant where they had worked — some for more than 15 years.
The fast food restaurant on Connecticut Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. closed on the final day of 2022, leaving about 20 employees without work.
"That Saturday, I didn't work, because when I arrived, the guy in charge of the store was already there, and he told us it was the last day of work," Rebeca Merche said in Spanish to Telemundo44. "I was surprised. Now I'm unemployed and a single mother. It's just me paying the rent for my son and I."
Like Merche, the rest of the group of workers started 2023 with a notice that they were no longer employed.
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"That Wednesday, the manager only told me because I don't work on Wednesdays, so he told me that they were going to close the store but they didn't didn't know if we were going to be working for one or two more weeks," Lidia Melchor said in Spanish. "I didn't work Saturday, so they called me and told me the store was closed."
But the restaurant didn't warn all employees that they were closing.
"One day before they closed, they warned the rest of the employees, but they never called me to warn me," Ingrid Contreras said in Spanish.
Those workers are asking why they were apparently not given advance notice of their layoffs.
Lawyer Arón Zavaro explained that "in general in D.C., all employees are at-will, which means they can be fired at any time and for any reason, with or without notice."
According to Zavaro, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law, also known as the WARN Act, requires employers to inform employees at least 60 days before the closure of a business — but it doesn't apply in this case.
"First off, the way a facility closure is defined by law, it needs to affect 50 or more employees. And I believe in the case of this Burger King in particular, only 20 employees were affected by the closure," Zavaro said.
"Another reason it might not apply in this case is that there are at least three different exceptions to the court order," he said. "For example, if Burger King could show that the closure was due to unforeseeable business circumstances, or due to disruptions of business at that location, WARN isn't triggered, and the notice requirement doesn't apply in that case."
Many of the workers are single mothers. Others say this is a difficult time to look for work.
"We're in panic. We're panicking because we were given no warning, and in this cold time — how do we look for work in the winter? There is no work," Antonia López told T44 in Spanish.
Telemundo 44, which first covered the story, was still waiting for a response to this story from Potomac Food Groups, the company that owns the Burger King location.
If you're in a similar situation, remember that you can apply for unemployment aid in the city or county where you work.
This story originally appeared in Spanish on our sister station, Telemundo 44. Para leer en español, haz clic aquí.
